Background and Education

Antony Blinken is the Herter/Nitze Distinguished Scholar at Johns Hopkins SAIS. He has held senior foreign policy positions in two U.S. administrations over three decades, including, most recently, Deputy Secretary of State (2015–2017), the nation’s number two diplomat. As Deputy Secretary, Mr. Blinken traveled to forty countries, helping to lead diplomacy in the fight against ISIL, the rebalance to Asia, and the global refugee crisis. Within the State Department, he built bridges to the innovation community, creating a full time State Department presence in Silicon Valley and initiating the State Department Innovation Forum, which enlists innovators and technologists in solving complex foreign policy problems.

Before his tenure at State, Mr. Blinken served in the White House as Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. He chaired the inter-agency Deputies Committee, the administration’s principal forum for formulating foreign policy. During the first term of the Obama Administration, he was Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President.

Mr. Blinken served for six years on Capitol Hill (2002–2008) as Democratic Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Mr. Blinken was a member of President Clinton’s National Security Council staff at the White House from 1994 to 2001. From 1999 to 2001, he was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs—President Clinton’s principal advisor for relations with the countries of Europe, the European Union and NATO. From 1994 through 1998, Mr. Blinken was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Speechwriting and then Strategic Planning, overseeing foreign policy planning, communications and speechwriting and serving as President Clinton's chief foreign policy speechwriter. Mr. Blinken began his government service at the State Department in 1993, as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs. After leaving the Clinton Administration, he held the position of Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies between 2001 and 2002.

Prior to joining the Clinton Administration, Mr. Blinken practiced law in New York and Paris. He has been a reporter for The New Republic magazine and has written about foreign policy for numerous publications including The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine and Foreign Affairs. He is the author of Ally Versus Ally: America, Europe and the Siberian Pipeline Crisis (Praeger, 1987). He appeared frequently on cable and network television on behalf of the Obama administration and has spoken to audiences around the world about U.S. foreign policy. Mr. Blinken attended grade school and high school in Paris, France where he received a French Baccalaureat degree with high honors. He is a graduate of Harvard College Magna cum Laude and Columbia Law School.

Mr. Blinken is currently a contributing opinion writer for TheNew York Times and a global affairs analyst for CNN.